“The meals are all right,” said Jim, unbending a trifle, “but that’s all you can say.”
“Um! What’s home without a motto over the door? Hain’t met Mis’ Stickney? Course not. Widder woman twice repeated. Machinery runnin’? Um! Got her goin’ quicker ’n folks expected.”
“We hurried things up a bit.”
“To be sure. Never seen sich a woman as the Widder Stickney for house-cleanin’. Best housekeeper in the county. Mill makes a heap of difference in Diversity. Kind of irritatin’ to Lafe Meggs up to the store. Says somebody’s always comin’ in and disturbin’ him to buy somethin’ or other. Calc’lates he’ll have to hire a clerk. Lafe’s ambitions mostly requires a sittin’ posture.”
“How big is this town, Judge?”
“About a dozen people and five hundred folks. Take in the newspaper, Jim?”
“I take a Grand Rapids paper.”
“Take in the Diversity paper, Jim?”
“No.”
“Um! Comes out Thursdays. Int’restin’ readin’ into it sometimes. The Widder Stickney got her second husband on the strength of her cookin’. Calc’late she could git a third with it, but she allows husbands is so fleetin’ and funeral expenses is so high ’twouldn’t hardly pay. Name of the paper is the Diversity Eagle. Business perty good, eh? Keepin’ up brisk?”